Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-05

! have bluntly asked her '.Is
you have a haired that you are not will
ling to give up ?" After a little con.
fusion she has slightly whispered.
''Yes." Then / said to her: You
will never fin peace with God as long
as you retain that virulence.'
THE HIDDEN Fox
A boy in Sparta having stole a fox
kept him under his coat, and, though
the fox was gnawing his vitals, he sub
mlttted to it rather than expose mis-
misdeed. Many Il man with a smiling
face has under his jacket an luminosity
that is gnawing away the strepgth Of
his body and the integrity Of his soul.
Better get rid of that hidden fox as
soon as possible. There are hundreds
Of domestic circles where that which
most is needed is the spirit of forgive
ness. Brothers apart and sisters apart,
and parents and childen apart. Solo
mon says a brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city. Are
there not enough sacred memories Of
your childhood to bring you together P
The rabbins recount how hat Nebu-
chadnezzar's son had such a spite
against his father, that after he was
dead he had his father burned to ashes
and then put the ashes into four
sacks and tied them to four eagles
necks which flew away in opposite
directions. And there are now domestic
~antipathies that seem forever to have
scattered all parental memories to the
four winds of heaven. How far the
eagles fly with those sacred ashes! The
hour Of sundswn makes to that family
no practical suggestion. Thomas
Carlyle IN his biography Of Frederic
the Great says the old king was told
by the confessor he must be at peace
with his enemies if he wanted to enter
heaven. Then he said to his wife the
queen: write to your brother after l
am dead that forgive him" Roloff,
the confessor, said: ''Her Majesty had
better write him immediately"
No." said the king, latter l am dead;
that will be safer" So he let the sun
Of his earthly existence 60 down upon
his wrath.
Again: We ought not to allow the
u set before forgiveness takes place,
because
WE MIGHT o LIVE
to see another day. And what if we
should be ushered into the presence of
our Maker with a grudge upon our
soulp The majority of people depart
this life in the night. Between IL
p. m. and 3 O'Clock q. M. there is
something in the atmosphere which
relaxes the grip the body has upon the
soul. and most of people enter the next
world through the shadows of this
world. Perhaps God may have
arranged it in that way so as to make
the contrast the more glorious. / have
seen sunshiny days in this world that
must have been almost like the radiance
of heaven. But as most people leave
the earth between shutdown and sun
rise they quit the world at its darkest
and heaven always bright, will be sthe
brighter for that contrast. Dat of
~blackness into tradition. Shall we
then leap over the roseate bank of sun
set into the fayorite hunting ground of
disease and death, carrying our ami
mosities with usp Who would want to
confront his God, against whom we
have all done meaner things
than anybody has eve done against
us, carrying old grudgesP How can
w expect
HIS FORGIVENESS
for the greater when we are not will
ing to forgive others the less? Napoleon
was encouraged TO undertake the o
ing of the Alps because C~harlemagne
had previously crossed them. And all
this rugged path Of forgiveness bears
the bleeding footsteps of Him who con-
quered through suffering, and we ought
to be willing TO follow. On the night
of our departure from this life into the
next, our one plea will have to be for
mercy. and it will have to be
offered in the presence of Him who has
said: 'lf you forgive not men their
trespasses neither will your heavenly
Father forgive your trespasses." What
u sorry plight if we stand there hating
this one, and hating that one, and
wishing this m a damage, and that
one a calamity, and we ourselves need
ing forgiveness for ten thousand times
ten thousand o%bliquities of heart and
life. When our last hour comes. we
want 1t to find us all right. Hardy
anything effects me SO much in the I'M
covering of ancient Pompeii as the &C.
count Of the soldier who, after the city
had for many centuries been covered
with the ashes and scoriae of Vesuvlus,
was found standing in his place en-
guard, hand on spear and helmet on
head. Others fled at the awful sub
mergement. but the explorer, seventeen
hundred years alter ward, found the
body of that brave fellow in right posi-
tiop. And it will be a grand thing if,
when our last moment comes, we are
found in right position toward the
world. as we'll as ia right position
toward God, on guard and unaffrighted
by the ashes from the mountain of
death. | do not suppose that | am any
more of a coward than most people.
but | declare to on that | would not
dare to sleep tonight il there were any
being IN all the earth wi b whom |
would not gladly shake hands, lest,
y...&~ IL. ...l. Ix.